In the present day, beamline ion implanters employ multiple components to direct a spot beam or ribbon beam from an ion source to a substrate. In order to properly treat a substrate, the ion beam may be accelerated to a target ion energy, and may be manipulated to achieve a target beam dimension. Additionally, the ion beam may be deflected to achieve a desired orientation as the ion beam travels through the beamline toward the substrate. Moreover, the ion beam may be adjusted to achieve a target degree of convergence, divergence, or parallelism. In addition, the ion beam may be manipulated to adjust the position of the ion beam during propagation of the ion beam toward the substrate. Various components may be employed to achieve these results, often entailing a balance between one characteristic of the ion beam, such as position, with respect to other characteristics of the ion beam, such as divergence.
In one particular example, beamline ion implanters employing magnetic ion sources may adjust the ion beam as the ion beam enters a magnetic analyzer used to mass analyze the ion beam. Heretofore, the angle of the ion beam may be adjusted toward a target angle at the expense of displacing the ion beam from a target position. For example, in a magnetic ion source, the ion beam is inherently bent downwardly (or upwardly) by fields generated by an ion source magnet as the ion beam is launched from the ion source. This bending may be partially compensated for by launching the ion beam at an upward angle so that the ion beam assumes a target angle of inclination, such as parallel to a given plane, as the ion beam enters a magnetic analyzer. In this circumstance, the ion beam may be displaced to a position lying high with respect to a target position for entering the magnetic analyzer. Conventional ion implantation schemes may accordingly balance the angle of inclination of the ion beam and the position of the ion beam to achieve an acceptable compromise in these two parameters.
It is with respect to these and other considerations the present improvements are provided.